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Albany

Brianna Rocais was sitting at a bus stop at Central Avenue and Quail Street at noon Monday when a man walking by suddenly punched her in the back of the head.

"He decked me," Rocais said. Her attacker walked away with his friend as if nothing happened.

"They were laughing," Rocais, a 23-year-old transgender woman, said. She followed them and asked, "Did you just hit me? Why did you hit me?"

The man turned to face her and shouted a slew of obscenities punctuated by a homophobic slur.

"They looked like they wanted a fight," Rocais said. "I didn't want to get beat up so I turned tail and ran."

Rocais said she believes the attack, one of three confrontations she has endured since November but the first she's reported to police, was motivated by a hatred of transgender people.

"It seems like a growing problem of violence toward queer folk in the area," Rocais said.

Martha Harvey, the executive director of the Pride Center of the Capital Region, said hate crimes are increasing nationwide.

"There is no denying there is a rise in homophobic slurs, attacks," Harvey said. "It seems that people feel emboldened to be aggressive, confrontational and intolerant since the new (presidential) administration took office."

Last year was the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the United States, according to GLAAD, a national LGBT organization. Twenty-seven transgender people were killed in the United States last year and nearly all of the victims were transgender women of color, GLAAD reports.

Transgender people are also at a greater risk for assault, harassment and suicide. A 2016 report by the National LGBTQ Task Force and the National Center for Transgender Equality found that 61 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming people had been a victim of physical assault and 64 percent had been a victim of sexual assault. A staggering 41 percent of respondents reported attempting suicide, compared to 1.6 percent of the general population.

Harvey said she was "not surprised but saddened and angered" to hear about Rocais being attacked.

"She was just sitting there waiting for a bus, minding her own business, in the middle of the day ... Just, wow," Harvey said. "We need to be out and visible and protect each other now more than ever."

Albany police spokesman Officer Steve Smith confirmed the details of the attack, saying officers are searching for the perpetrator, who could be ticketed for harassment.

Smith said Tuesday that Rocais did not tell officers at the scene that she thought the attack was motivated by transphobia.

Rocais said Tuesday she believes her gender identity and expression make her a target for attacks, especially "when I'm not presenting entirely feminine." Rocais works at Target and was wearing her uniform, a red shirt and khaki pants, when she was attacked.

"I was in a daze," she said. "I was hit hard. I felt like I got the lights kicked out of me."

After she escaped, Rocais called 911. She said officers told her a nearby city camera may have caught the incident on tape and EMS workers didn't think she'd suffered a concussion.

"The pain has dulled. Now I'm just more frustrated," Rocais said Tuesday. "I hate to say it but I expect these things to happen."

In November, Rocais was walking down Quail Street when an intoxicated man threatened to sexually assault her, she said.

"He picked up a rubber pylon (from a Stewart's parking lot) and threatened to shove it up me," Rocais said. She ran to a nearby friend's house.

Rocais said she considered calling the police but, since the man never touched her, decided not to report the incident. She recalled thinking, "Maybe it was a freak accident."

Two months later, a man on Ontario Street spat his chewing tobacco on her as she walked by, Rocais said.

"I didn't react to that at all. I went home and cleaned it off," she said. "Self-care and self-preservation is the most important thing."

When a stranger punched her without even making eye contact Monday, Rocais said it was "the last straw" and she had to call police.

"I feel like they did it because they felt they wouldn't get reprimanded," Rocais said. "That casual bigotry needs to be called out."

emasters@timesunion.com • 518-454-5467 • @emilysmasters

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